Margaret Edson

• Born: July 4, 1961
• Birthplace: Washington, DC

Margaret Edson won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1999 for her play, W;t (Wit), about a renowned professor of poetry who deals with cancer and her hospital care, while reassessing her life through flashbacks and monologues. The play also won the Drama Desk, Dramatists Guild, Drama Desk of New York, New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, Fellowship of Southern Writers, Berilla Kerr Foundation, Susan Blackburn Prize (finalist) and Los Angeles Drama Critics awards. The semicolon in the play's name was taken from a line in the play.

A magna cum laude graduate in Renaissance History from Smith College, Edson went on to get her master's degree in English from Georgetown University. She worked in a myriad of jobs ranging from waitressing to painting to clerking in a cancer and AIDS ward in a hospital, to selling bicycles. After she received her degree from Georgetown, she taught English as a second language in DC public schools. She currently teaches kindergarten in Atlanta, GA.

Most Famous Works

• W;t (1991)

Margaret Edson on PBS (April 14, 1999).

Margaret Edson (born 4 July 1961, Washington, D.C.) is an American playwright. Edson graduated with a B.A. in Renaissance History from Smith College, and received a master's in English literature from Georgetown University. Her jobs have included being a bicycle shop sales clerk and a volunteer ESL teacher.

Edson's first play was Wit, first produced in 1995 at South Coast Repertory in California, about a John Donne scholar who is hospitalized for and dying of ovarian cancer. Edson did use her work experience in a hospital as part of the background in writing Wit.^[1][2] At the time of the first New York production of Wit in late 1998, Edson was a kindergarten teacher at Centennial Place Elementary School (Atlanta, Georgia). She won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Wit.^[3] After she won the Pulitzer Prize, Edson received a large amount of publicity, including an interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. Edson has written a second play, Satisfied, whose subject is "country-gospel radio in Kentucky".^[2] As of April 2008, this second play has not received a production.

Edson gave the commencement address during the commencement ceremony of 2008 at Smith College.

Edson currently teaches kindergarten at John Hope Elementary in Atlanta, where she is chair of the kindergarten team.

References

1. ^ Peter Marks (18 September 1998). "Science and Poetry Face Death in a Hospital Room". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940CE6DB1630F93BA2575AC0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-03-29. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Kevin Sack (10 November 1998). "At Lunch With Margaret Edson; Colors, Numbers, Letters and John Donne". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E1DE113EF933A25752C1A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-04-06. 
3. ^ Alex Kuczynski (13 April 1999). "Teacher Turned Playwright Is Among the Winners of 22 Pulitzer Prizes". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E3DC1F38F930A25757C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-04-06. 

External links

• Margaret Edson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Margaret Edson at the Internet Movie Database
• Margaret Edson at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Transcript from Edson's April 14, 1999 appearance on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
• New Georgia Encyclopedia

v • d • e Pulitzer Prize for Drama Michael Bennett / Nicholas Dante / James Kirkwood, Jr. / Marvin Hamlisch / Edward Kleban (1976) · Michael Cristofer (1977) · Donald L. Coburn (1978) · Sam Shepard (1979) · Lanford Wilson (1980) · Beth Henley (1981) · Charles Fuller (1982) · Marsha Norman (1983) · David Mamet (1984) · James Lapine / Stephen Sondheim (1985) · August Wilson (1987) · Alfred Uhry (1988) · Wendy Wasserstein (1989) · August Wilson (1990) · Neil Simon (1991) · Robert Schenkkan (1992) · Tony Kushner (1993) · Edward Albee (1994) · Horton Foote (1995) · Jonathan Larson (1996) · Paula Vogel (1998) · Margaret Edson (1999) · Donald Margulies (2000) Complete list: (1918-1925) · (1926-1950) · (1951-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)